Contest Roll Call!

Hey all-

I just wanted to do a quick roll call to see if I had missed anyone's entries! Remember, the deadline is tomorrow night at midnight!

Here's who I have entered so far in each group:

OTTB:

Aimee+Cuna
Aimee+Courage
Amber+Jetta
Christian+Valentino
Kari+Piney
Kari+George
Karley+Henry
Kate+Lucy
Katie+Finn
Katie+Owl
Lauren+Simon
Lindsay+Apollo
Lindsey+Diva
LWilliams+Carlos
Sarah+Hemie
Tori+Parker
Tori+Penny


Non-OTTB:

Amber+Misty
Ashley+Olivia
Kalin+Red
Lindsey+Mojito
LWilliams+Ramone
Olivia+Dijon
Stephanie+Pyxar
Stephanie+Queenie
Janine+Kaspin

There's still time to enter if you haven't already! If you sent me an entry and I overlooked it, please email me again at: xniamhx@gmail.com

Best of luck to everyone,
Niamh & Riley.

Cavallo Sport Boot -- Day 1 (to be followed with a full product review in a few weeks)

He's not 100% here, I think he's still quite tentative on his feet. That said, he's moving out freely (he was slightly stiffer going right but what else is new). Pastern wraps and gel pads are en route to make him as comfortable as we can. He still very, very ginger on gravel, but I know he's going to be better off for this in the long run. Good boy Riley!

take a moment

I posted this on Facebook/Instagram this morning and I can't stop staring at it.

I will never tire of seeing your face emerge through the early morning fog when you hear your name.

 Riley lives in a 10 acre field with 4 other geldings (including his BFF Henry). One of the things I've always loved about him is that he comes when you call him. The other horses were bickering on the hill about who would be first to get breakfast and Riley popped his head up, saw me, and came ambling over. I love that about him. While I was haltering him, Henry came galloping up to say hello too!!!

Looking on the bright side

Riley is officially barefoot until further notice. After a frank conversation with my farrier he said, "if he was my horse this is what my plan of action would be" and we followed it. He came out, scolded Riley for pulling another shoe, was not devastated by the damage he did removing said shoe, and trimmed him all around. He did remark on what fantastic back feet he has. So that's something... which brings me to focus of this post. Looking on the bright side.

I am generally an optimistic individual. I have been known to cheer lead for those around me during hard times, I am excellent at seeking out silver linings and clinging to them as a source of hope when everything seems bleak. I've had a significant amount of diversity in my life and it's this characteristic that has helped me persevere. However, I am not immune to feeling sorry for myself and I definitely get the-whole-world-is-working-against-me-why-can't-I-get-a-break kind of feeling. Especially regarding Riley.

He's my first horse. I've waited 30 years (I took my first lesson when I was 4) to finally have a horse of my own and he's been more or less un-rideable since May. I didn't want to look at my Google calendar to confirm this, but I did yesterday and discovered that I've sat on him maybe 12 times since his PPE. The calendar is checkered with "lame", "almost sound", "NQR", "pulled shoe" notes. We've hardly made any progress due to all of these starts and stops and it's hard to see those around me (near and far) out having a great time on their horses who seemingly never have these issues! I know that 90% of this is out of my control, but it still makes me feel like a less than adequate horse owner. I question myself daily if I am actually doing everything I can to make sure that he'll improve.

Monday, when the farrier was there and my horse stood like a complete angel dozing off in the cross ties, I had a moment of self-awareness. I've been tunnel-visioned regarding his soundness and hoof issues which has blurred my thinking about him. I was so focused on not being able to ride and how my life wasn't fair and I forgot about all of the good things about him (not completely, they just weren't in the forefront of my mind). So with that in mind, I wanted to make a list of positive things about my horse, after all horse ownership is a lot more than just riding.

Riley's positive qualities:
*he's cute
*despite not being in steady work, he paints a nice picture conformationally
*he has terrific hind feet (hey, 2 out of 4 ain't bad!)
*he's a kind horse
*he's not spooky (he's no dead head either)
*he's a good role model (seriously, put a naughty horse out in the pasture with him)
*he's a good sport (if you're going to be my horse you have to be willing for me to do a lot of stupid things around you)
*he's a nice mover
*he's game (he's never said NO to anything I've asked of him -- okay, maybe the right lead canter)
*he's a great helper for young/green horses (ie, he doesn't get worked up when other horses are losing their minds)
*he loads like a champ
*he comes to me when I call him (I love this)
*he settles quickly
*he is friends with everyone (even though he gets a little beat up in the pasture)
*he loves going to new places
*he's tolerant (he's only ever thought about being naughty)
*he's easy to handle 98% of the time
*he's uncomplicated to ride
*he's willing (I've always said the most important quality about a horse is that they meet you half way)
*he's young (our journey has only just begun)

chowing down on his bute mix

**I'm sure there are more things I could add here, but I'm not sure a list of all the reasons my pony is the best make for good reading. I guess I've just been feeling really low about all of this lately. I've been hiding it a little, but honestly when he pulled that RF shoe on our gorgeous ride the other day I wanted to burst into tears. I felt so utterly defeated and no amount of talking me off the ledge was going to change that. But, after a day or so to reflect, I decided that I have to be proactive about his hoof health and start to look for positive things instead of feeling sorry for myself (which to be honest, is not a good look for me). I gave up all authority to my farrier who I trust implicitly and together we decided that barefoot was going to be the best thing as long as we could a.) keep him comfortable and b.) keep him in work (not necessarily for my agenda, but to keep circulation and to stimulate hoof growth) -- he simply said the hoof he will have 6 months ago will look and feel so different that it will be worth watching him gimp around for a little bit. He liked the idea of using boots (he has another sport horse client that swears by Cavallo boots) so I don't just have to stick to arena footing for work. I picked up some over the weekend (they were too big so I exchanged them) and he fitted them on Monday to make sure they fit perfect (and they did!). We'll start slowly as the boots take a little while to break in, so we'll keep the sessions around 20 minutes and I'll try to mix up the work. I think I'll do a little on the lunge line at first to let him get his bearings with the new footwear and then we'll start hacking around the property at the walk and build up from there. My short term hope is to get him comfortable enough without shoes before the ground hardens for winter.

A few comparison photos:

Fronts (I know, terrible comparison photos -- I'll get better ones) The top image is post-trim after he had his shoes pulled on July 7th. The bottom photo is pre-trim September 16th. Not tons of change here, but at least he doesn't have saucepans for feet anymore, slightly less flare to be seen, but I'll have to get better photos to truly decide that.

I see a lot of change here. Same order for photos as above. The angles of his hoof wall are much different and his heels are starting to look less contracted. It's crazy to think that he was standing so much on his heels before! The one this he has going for him is that he grows a good hoof wall! P's theory is to continue to bring back the toe, but obviously he has to go as slowly as the hoof tells him. I think they look much improved after just 2.5 months.

You know, the craziest thing about hoof problems is being patient. The progress and change comes so slightly and in such incremental amounts that you can make yourself crazy looking for it. I'm hoping that his soles will improve and I'm happy to hear suggestions for products that you guys like! We're using double strength Farrier's Formula and Venice Turpentine already.

The long and the short of it

Riley has managed to pull three shoes off (LF, RF, RF respectively) within 5 days of each other over the last 2 weeks. To say that my farrier and I are frustrated would be a massive understatement.

Troublemakers.

Saturday, we planned to trailer Riley along with Prima (she was competing at Fairhill), but the morning started with a weird vibe. When I got the barn, E had Prima bathed but she had a quizzical look on her face. Something wasn't quite right. Prima was a bit footsore so we bagged the idea of going to Fairhill. No need to make that any worse. With the truck and trailer hooked up and a beautiful day we decided we could take advantage of the circumstances and put the boys on the trailer and go for a nice hack at The Laurels. Henry decided he's never been in a trailer before and made me chase him on with a pitchfork and Riley smashed me in the top of my head as I was fixing the front bar in the trailer (totally an accident) -- like I said, the day had a weird vibe. With Henry working himself up we decided to trailer over to a local tavern, get some lunch and some beers and see how they were doing after a little time to settle. Wouldn't you know they were as quiet as could be when we returned. Off we went for our hack. Except that Riley refused to stand next to the trailer for me to get on. Grrrr. We had a few discussions about this until I led him down the road to a little bank near the entrance to the park. He pulled the same shit again and I made him walk up and down the back until he was will to stand still next to it. Don't misunderstand me here, I realize it's a new, exciting environment and he might not be an angel for mounting, but when I stick my foot in the stirrup and he flies backwards... that is not cool. Finally he realized that I was going to make him work really hard if he wasn't going to stand still, and he finally stood patiently while I got on! So dramatic.

Cutest pony after his hack!

Our ride was really nice. Both horses seemed very happy to be out and about. We crossed a few streams, got in some trot sets, a little cantering and as we headed back toward the trailer we did a quick shoe-check. Guess who pulled his RF? Seriously.

He was understandably really sore on the blue stone and sound on grass. Sigh. Time to reevaluate his situation again. My gut tells me that we should pull him shoes now before the ground get hard (since he is sound enough on grass) and ride him in boots. I've done lots of research on boots and found some that I think will work for him (the farrier will make sure they fit today). This will give him a little bit of time to get over the transition (roughly 2-3 months until the ground gets super hard) and he'll still be able to get in some work. We'll keep the sessions short while his boots break in (and to help prevent him from getting too sore). We will keep him barefoot from now until next spring, in the meantime P will try to trim his foot back to a functional starting point in small measures.

When I called P today, he laughed when he answered the phone and said that he's never had a client like Riley! It was his suggestion that we pull the shoes and he liked the idea of using boots to keep him in light work. He said it's his inclination to pull shoes on horses like Riley, but not a lot of owners can watch their horses throughout the transition (admittedly, it was hard in July, but that was only for a month). I told him that we've taken all goals off the table and that I just want to get him healthy.

These are the boots we tried Sunday -- they are too big, and I exchanged them for a smaller size in the "sport" version

Test run in the arena -- he was sound despite the fit!

I'm going to get some good photos today to show our starting point. It will be interesting to see the differences over the next 6 months. At least he's a good sport about getting the boots on! I'm going to order the pastern wraps today to make sure he doesn't get rubs.

So that's all for now... I'll keep you guys posted on how things go later today. For now, just some cute photos of Riley, since I'm too frustrated to even think straight.

Riley making friends with Zee .

At least he's an easy keeper.

Best buds for life/ Henry makes Riley look like a pony.

ps. Don't forget to enter my contest!!!!!!!

200th Post! It's giveaway time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can hardly believe that I have written 200 posts! Let's take a little look back since I started this blog wayyy, wayyy back in May 2007 (really????)
While I haven't always been consistent with my posting (I mean, I didn't even own a horse until 4 months ago) it seems as though I've always had plenty to say. I've had almost 25,000 page views to date (though is suspect many of those are from me), averaging about 1200 a month. With a whopping 74 followers, I'd say that's pretty good. I know in the beginning, I was writing for myself as a way to journal my experiences with Kiki. I never imagined owning my own horse, or making such fantastic connections along the way. It seems silly, but blogging reminds me of my youthful pen-paling experiences and the idea of having friends miles and miles away that I communicate with through correspondence is still something I love. Throughout all the ups and downs I've felt supported by all of you and I am so grateful for all of your feedback and help over the years. I can't wait to see what the next 100 posts bring for me and Riley, most of all I just want us to be happy and healthy!

As a way to thank all of you, I've come up with a fun giveaway. It will take a little bit of work on your part, but I think the prizes are worth it!  Best of all? There will be two winners and 5 runner up prizes!

Rules:

*Send me a photo summing up why you love your OTTB
*If you do not own an OTTB, please send me a photo of why your horse is awesome
*These can be as simple or as creative as you want. You can add text, effects, etc.
*One photo entry PER horse -- that means you lucky individuals with more than one pony get multiple chances to win (limit: 2 entries)!
*You do not have to take the photo yourself, you may be in the picture too!
*I hate making rules.

Terms:

*Please send your entries to: xniamhx@gmail.com (put OTTB or non-OTTB in the subject line)
*Leave me a comment on this entry so I know you've entered (sometimes things end up in junk mail)
*Please include a small bio about your horse
*Re-post on your blog for more chances to win
*Winners will be chosen by a small panel of horsey and non-horsey people
*Contest ends 2 weeks from today on September 26th @ midnight! Winners will be chosen Friday, September 27th (that gives you two weekends to get your stuff together!)

The prizes:

1st prize in the OTTB group:

Woot!

1st prize in the non-OTTB group:

Picture your pony here!

5 runner up prizes:

Perfect to stick in your grooming box for shows!

Have fun and best of luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Progress?

progress

n [ˈprəʊgrɛs]

1. movement forwards, esp towards a place or objective

2. satisfactory development, growth, or advance she is making progress in maths

3. advance towards completion, maturity, or perfection the steady onward march of progress

4. (modifier) of or relating to progress a progress report

5. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Biology) Biology increasing complexity, adaptation, etc., during the development of an individual or evolution of a group

6. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) Brit a stately royal journey

in progress taking place; under way

vb [prəˈgrɛs]

1. (intr) to move forwards or onwards, as towards a place or objective

2. to move towards or bring nearer to completion, maturity, or perfection

[from Latin prōgressus a going forwards, from prōgredī to advance, from pro-¹ + gradī to step]

While I don't feel like we've made much progress in terms of fitness or training, Riley and I have progressed by definition. This photo doesn't give much of an idea of that, but even with all of the setbacks we've had since I first purchased him, I feel like we have moved forward. He looks better (he's gaining some muscle, a tiny semblance of a topline, and he's carrying himself properly instead of a bit inverted) I look better (chair seat is gone, my shoulders are going back to where they should be and I'm not riding defensively all the time) -- I have hope that we will continue to move forward and progress and that we will paint a very nice picture one day together.

The nice thing about documenting every little thing is that you can really start to see the incremental change. Not everyone enjoys that, but I love seeing how he and I become more of a team every time we see each other.

Brrrrr, it's cold in here -- I need your help!

Okay, so it's actually going to be 92 degrees tomorrow with 1 million percent humidity, but Saturday is bringing a low of 44 and the forecast for next week promises true fall weather! With that in mind, I need some help from you guys. Riley is now living outside 24/7 with a nice big shed. The plan is to continue that throughout the winter. I've been lucky enough until now to borrow things as I've needed them, but with my enabler friend owning three horses now, I need to outfit Riley with a fall/winter wardrobe.

What we need:
*A lightweight waterproof turnout
*A medium weight, high denier (also waterproof) turnout
*A heavy weight, high denier (waterproof) turnout
**Possibly a spare medium weight (our barn likes you to have at least one spare available)

What I need from you guys are some recommendations. I'll admit, I am a little overwhelmed at the options! Some people swear by Weathebeeta, some people say Rambo is worth all the money (and hype) and there are tons in between. I do really like Schneider's products (Riley's flysheet is from there and it's terrific quality and held up well to the rigors of 24/7 turnout). Do you guys prefer to layer? Have one really heavy blanket? Do you like neck attachments? Any preferences on belly bands vs. surcingles? I am probably not going to fully clip Riley, but he will most likely get a trace clip once he gets woolly (and oh does he!).

I'm asking for your feedback!

ps. Riley wears a 78" in case any of you have spares lying around that you would like to sell us!

Help.

pps. I'm trying to flesh out a few more posts before my giveaway! I thought I was nearing 200, but I had 3 blog drafts that were being including in the count. I believe this is post 198 (for real, this time).

Not Riley, yet.

Whole30 wrap up and I meet a blog friend IRL!

As you may remember, I started the Whole30 challenge a month ago. The last four weeks have been filled with plenty of ups and downs and without going through the whole month day by day I'll give you some highlights and lowlights.

Pros:
*My near chronic shoulder pain is completely gone. I'm astonished.
*My insomnia was not an issue. I slept remarkably well and felt more rested in the mornings and more energetic during the day.
*I made lots of awesome recipes that I'm keeping in regular rotation.
*I lost 11lbs. Seriously, this is insane.
*I generally felt much better overall.

Cons:
*I don't care what they say, doing this was actually quite hard... not constantly, but when it got hard I really had to fight not just throwing in the towel. I had at least 4-5 days over the 30 that I came close to quitting due to external stress.
*Due to being busy, I got a little lazy about planning which made some meals a little boring and predictable at times. It was definitely easier to follow this plan if you tried new recipes often.
*The first week is pretty brutal... but that only highlights just how unhealthy your lifestyle was before.
*I got really sick of eggs.
*There were a few days where following the plan meant skipping a meal (which is not encouraged obviously) but I didn't really have a choice. Those were very tough days! For example: when we moved the horses to the new barn (being out in the middle of nowhere without a decent place to get food and poor planning on my part left me very weak and light-headed).

All in all, I feel much healthier because of Whole30. It really helped me understand just how awful processed food is and further more, that sugar is in EVERYTHING. Holy crap. I'm really happy with the results and it's inspiring to think that simply eating clean can have such a holistic effect on your well-being. Going forward, I'm going to implement many of the things I learned throughout Whole30. Specifically, the cooking oils I used. I am completely a ghee convert! Overall, I feel really good about completing this challenge... emotionally, spiritually and physically I feel amazing.

Riley actually moving straight! Love him.

On Saturday, I headed out to the barn to ride and hopefully meet up with Miss Carly of Poor Woman Showing! We exchanged texts throughout the day to coordinate and I crossed my fingers that we'd get a chance to actually meet! The funny thing about having a blog and blog friends, is that when you talk about these people in every day life it sorta makes you sound like you have a bunch of imaginary friends. I has been riding for about 20 minutes when Carly and her hubby and pups arrived. Riley and I had a bit of a discussion about stopping/bulging/cropping at the gate (oh, all while being herded by an unruly border collie -- seriously, my horse is going to be sooo desensitized after this place) so I schooled the hell out of him on a 20meter circle until he finally understood that I meant business. He felt really sound with only a tiny bit of unevenness tracking right and he was delightful in the contact (he loves the happy mouth). I wanted to see my friend school is canter being that she hasn't ridden him since he got the pads/shoes on I thought she would like to feel the difference (plus, any chance to have an advanced event rider school my horse = yes, please). She had him looking wicked fancy within a few minutes, She couldn't believe how much different he felt in the contact and how much freer and more forward his movement was! She picked up both leads with no problem and his right canter departure was probably the best it's ever been! Carly arrived and we chatted for a minute before I got back on to test out his new found happiness in the canter.

Riley is growing into a lovely little sport horse. I can't wait to see what he's going to look like in full work! Also, is it just me, or does he make me look small?

We got one full circle in (as seen above photographed by Carly herself) and suddenly my horse was on 3-legs. Um, what? I hopped off immediately to find that he had sprung his RF shoe and bent one of the clips just enough that it was sticking into his sole. Perfect. He's only 2 weeks into his trimming cycle, so while the shoe was half off it was also solidly half on. We tried to pry the clip back enough so he could put his foot down and then we brainstormed on what to do. I honestly could do nothing but laugh at the situation! Between all the ups and downs I've had with him over the last four months and Carly being there to witness the shenanigans it was pretty hilarious. Because we're still in post-moving craziness, we couldn't locate any proper farrier tools so I tracked down a maintenance person and begged him to find a hammer or something for us! He came to our rescue with a weirdly shaped tack hammer and a pair of pliers. We made it work while Riley made a liar of me and stood like a perfect gentleman as we tapped, pulled and pried that sucker off. He lost a bit of his hoof around the clip (so now he has matching holes) and I covered it with a diaper and some duct tape to help protect it in the meantime. Sigh. I was able to give Carly a full tour of the place and I'm sure it was fun for  her to meet some of the horses I talk about all the time! She stuck around long enough to watch E get on her 4 year old for the first time post-track. Kiwi acted like she's been doing this her whole life and walked and trotted around the ring on a loose rein. She's going to be such a fancy horse!

Next time, Carly is either bringing Bobby, or she's bringing her helmet and breeches and we're going for adventures together! My horse is going to have to get it together. In the meantime, I spoke to the farrier who had to laugh when I called him over the weekend. He's going to tack the shoe back on, but if Riley can't keep the leather pads/shoes on for more than a week, we're going to possibly switch him to plastic pads and a tighter fit on the shoes. I'm also looking around for a pair of used Cavallos boots so that the next time this happens I can at least keep him comfortable. We may wind up switching to boots while his hoof grows out. He had such a beautiful hoof wall and now with two sprung shoes, he's got giant holes:( He'll get the shoe put back on tomorrow and I'm going to run out afterward to take him for a spin. Now that he's getting in semi-regular work, his greenness is really starting to show and he's starting to test me more and more. I'd really like to stay somewhat consistent with his training, so I don't lose my upper hand!

Oh yea, super awesome bonus: I stopped at Bartville Harness to pick up some first aid stuff and I found a pair of wide, triple stitched Nunn Finer leathers for $30, a neck strap, and a fleece girth (used) for $10! Score!

Back to School

It's that time of year right?

I was lucky enough to sneak away from work a little early yesterday to head out to the barn to ride with my friend E. The farrier was due at 3pm to put a shoe on both of our horses that lost theirs in the moving excitement... he was apparently running very late and actually didn't arrive until after I got there. That meant I had the honor of holding my horse for him...

With all the trouble that LF has given us over the last 4 months Riley has really started to develop some resentment about having it handled for long periods of time. This has resulted in several come to Jesus moments between us. He's usually very amicable about most things and well-behaved on the ground (I don't tolerate pushy horses), but he's gotten worse and worse over this hoof. The last two times the farrier was out he was pretty bad, but not nearly as bad as he was yesterday. He immediately pooped and peed in the aisle (which I should have seen coming), he was distracted by everything, he hardly kept his foot up for the farrier to take a quick look. Once he got down to business, Riley got worse, throwing himself around in the aisle (keep in mind this aisle is twice as wide as a regular barn aisle), leaning back and trying to sit down (because God-forbid he stand on three legs for more that 3 seconds). Even though I was holding him and correcting his bad behavior, it escalated. At once point, the farrier refused to let go off his leg and Riley hobbled away from him on three legs, he lost his footing and slipped in his own pee nearly wiping out completely... sigh. We decided to move him into the now free wash stall so he was a bit more confined. He was slightly better in there, but was still a bear. He decided that he could not keep his balance with his foot on the hoof stand and proceeded to thrash around and break that. Then he somehow cut the scab open on his old wound on the inside of his LF so there was a pool of blood filling up in his upside down bell boot (which wound up on the farrier). Thankfully, the farrier was able to get the shoe/pad on and finally get everything filed down and neat (though, without the help of the hoof stand -- farrier was not amused). He filled the hole left by the clip with some glue and he was as good as new... but not before he thrashed around some more and hit me squarely in the face nearly breaking my glasses. Admittedly, he got me really angry, frazzled and embarrassed. I told the farrier that I wouldn't mind if he tacked on an unruly horse fee on to my bill. Thankfully, my farrier is the nicest guy ever, and since he JUST put this shoe/pad set up on a week ago (and he knew I hadn't even had a chance to ride him!) he didn't charge me for the new set. I'm going to have to do something REALLY nice for him! But, after he left it really made me think about what I can do to improve his behavior for the farrier. He is really good for 95% of other activities. Maybe a chain shank/lip chain... I dunno, but he can't act like this again.

After we were through I quickly tacked him up and hopped on to see how he was feeling. We rode the perimeter of the property with our friend and he was quite good throughout. We trotted some hills on uneven terrain and he felt great. He walked flat-footed down the long driveway on bluestone without a care in the world. Hooray for that. We finished the ride with some quick arena work and he felt amazing. Hardly stiff at all tracking right and no weird steps. If I had to guess I'd say I felt a little unevenness, but it was marginal at best. I rode without spurs and he was lovely and forward (though I really do need them to help reinforce the bulging that happens) and we tried out a new bit which he LOVED!

We switched from this:

Herm Sprenger Duo

To this:

Happy Mouth Mullen

What a huge difference. I started him originally in a full cheek snaffle, which he went okay in (and I tend to like for babies), but he's not heavy in front and has good brakes and I wanted him to really think about the contact at the stage, so we switched the the Herm Sprenger. He went even better in that for awhile, but he was very unsteady in the contact and I think it was because of the loose rings. He would flap his head a lot and if I held the contact it felt like a tug of war because of all the movement in the bit. I read some really good things about Happy Mouths and I though since he seemed to like the feel on the solid bit we'd try to Mullen. Everyone seemed to agree that it was ideal for young horses and helped them seek the contact a little bit better. I wish I had taken photos after our ride because he had so much foam around his mouth. He rode so softly in it and after a few minutes of warm up on a loose rein when I asked for contact (gently) he gave and sought it out himself. Success! I think he also likes that this bit is much steadier in his mouth too. *ps. this was my first time riding in the arena at the new place and the footing is awesome!

My friend is going to try to ride him today and work on his canter a bit more and tomorrow we're hoping to school some of the xc jumps. I want to keep his work level as varied as possible!

This is post 198, stay tuned for exciting news at 200!

Best laid plans...

What do they say?

Whatever the saying, don't make any plans, ever, with horses. That's my takeaway.

I took the day off of the farm yesterday to spend some time with the pups. I took them on a really nice morning hike to a local state park that I haven't had the chance to explore yet. It was delightful and they had a super fun time.

Happy Pups.

Monday's forecast was looking pretty grim with thunderstorms due all morning and throughout the early afternoon but I was determined to get out to the barn to take Riley on a maiden voyage around the barn.

Riley had other ideas and when I grabbed him from his shed I realized he had ripped his brand new shoe off. Grrrrr. I haven't even had a chance to ride him since he got the leather pads and shoes! AGH! Oh, and it was on his LF, you know, the problem hoof. Sigh. It took some convincing to get him to walk past the scary brush and cat house again on the way to the barn, but he actually settled really quickly. I wrapped his hoof with some vet wrap, put some ointment on the gash he sustained in turnout (looks like it happened on a tree) and fly sprayed the crap out of him. (The BO found us and mentioned that if I leave my fly spray hanging up, they'll spray him every morning for me!) I decided despite the gimpy leg, we'd go exploring. There's so much cool stuff to look at around the farm and he's going to have to address it at some point! So off we went, through the grass jump field, and around a part of the xc course around the perimeter of the property, down to the arena (which they were abut to drag) and back past all the farm animals (swans, pigs, goats, et al). He was quite good abut everything! While in the arena, I thought I'd jog him to see if he was super lame (he wasn't), but he was lazy and a bit uneven):

Why am I doing all the work? Lazy bones. In other news, Whole30 must be working, I'm looking svelte!

I was pretty grumpy by the time we left. I was admittedly really excited to get back on, especially considering how sound he's been looking! A call has been made to the farrier and hopefully he'll be out tomorrow to put a new shoe on him. Sadly, I took a spin around the field to look for the shoe to no avail. Just flushing money down the drain!

 At least he's looking shiny and happy (oh and completely awkward during his growth spurt):

The Odd Couple. Also, his fly mask's ear is hanging on by a thread!

Hopefully the shoe goes back on successfully, he managed to rip a big chunk out of his toe (where the clip was) and we'll get some evening rides in this week!

Ps. I'm nearing 200 posts and I'm thinking of organizing a fun post with prizes!

Moved!!! In which I write about something the same day it happens!

This will be a picture heavy post... one because I am wiped out and too tired to write a full report, but also because I took a million photos!

The day started early, with everyone meeting at the old barn to make a plan for the day. We still had a little clean up to do at the old place and we had 7 horses to move to two different properties.

heading out

We started off by moving the boys to the new farm, they were expecting us between 9-9:30 so we aimed to load up around 8:30. As usual, loading the guys up was completely uneventful (have I mentioned how grateful I am for the zero-drama horse hauling) -- they seemed to know something was up because they were both moving around a lot and were quite sweaty by the time we arrived at the new barn. It was only about a 15 minute ride, but they seemed to get themselves a more worked up than usual. When we arrived to the new barn (keep in mind I hadn't seen the place at this point) the atmosphere was bustling. Like I mentioned before, this farm is home to an animal rescue so I knew there would be more activity on the weekend than during the week, and I had mentally prepared myself for volunteers, kids, and lots of foot traffic (of the 4-legged kind and otherwise). It was a bit of a zoo (literally) when we pulled in and we were directed to the back of the property by the grass jump field...